Thoughts on my Krishna dream would be appreciated

Submitted by pollenpath on Sat, 2012-05-19 14:06

Two nights ago I dreamed the following (NB. 'Emmerdale' is a tv soap opera and Jorge is a friend and old flatmate):

It took place in a small room somewhere. It was night time and we were stood next to a window curtained with nets or similarly translucent fabric. I was with two young women: one was definitely 'Jenny' from the soap opera Emmerdale (or the actress that plays her, at any rate). The other I don't recall. I had an old record player, the boxed Dansette type from my childhood. A record was playing the accompaniment to verses that the girls would take turns to sing. Each verse took as its subject a religious figure. The only one I specifically recall now was Krishna, the last to be sung to/about (for these were hymns, on reflection). I was constantly struck by the beauty of the girls' voices as they carried the intricate melodies, occasionally harmonising and hitting high notes perfectly that I anticipated would be beyond them (particularly 'Jenny'). I was rapt with joy. Halfway through this recital, Jorge came into the room. He was just in time for the last couple of verses, but before the girls began 'Jenny' exclaimed: "You haven't got Frank Sinatra in this room, have you?" I think I'd mentioned that I had a Sinatra album and she got really excited at the prospect of hearing him sing. But as the four of us gathered by the window to sing to Krishna (for we were all singing now and I, to my surprise, knew the devotional verses by heart) a Krishna-blue light shone in through the thin curtain, bathing us in its trademark colour. I heard myself intoning names and syllables I had no idea I really knew (except perhaps for that of 'Arjuna', which I noticed myself singing repeatedly) until with heightening emotional pitch the song ended. As it did so I pulled back the curtain to see a blue figure, slightly stooped, running away from the crowded square below. For Krishna, he was older and a little out of shape, and together with the gaudy light I sensed a performance, an approximation to the symbolism, but all done for our benefit. This happened in a split second, because it seemed that as soon as the singing was over, 'Relax' by Frankie Goes to Hollywood came on the record player, loudly pounding its assertive and reassuring message into the room as I took off my glasses - aware that my face was tired and strained with intensity - and flopped onto the bed.

On waking, I was struck by the singing of paeans to embodiments of God, most memorably Krishna. The theatrical blue light and actor impersonating Krishna made me think of the 'finger pointing to the moon' analogy in metaphysics; neither the light nor the blue painted man were Krishna, necessarily, but in a sense Krishna isn't Krishna either, he's a symbol of something much greater. Nevertheless, he's a useful symbol for drawing nearer to Source, and dreams are in the business of symbolism and metaphor after all. Plus, when I was in my late teens I came across some of those free books about Krishna that ISKCON volunteers used to hand out, and was vaguely fascinated. I rarely think about Krishna, I have to say, and have never seriously read the Gita or been much interested in doing so. Since the dream, I feel curious about its possible significance but I don't feel like I had a divine revelation as such. Nevertheless, I can't help feeling it's trying to tell me something. It was fairly remarkable in my experience, i don't often dream about gods. And perhaps by trying to interpret it as an approximation to Krishna, rather than a vision of Krishna himself, I'm denying the possibility that he visited me in my dream. I'm unsure.

Here are the lyrics to 'Relax' by FGTH which ended the dream:

Oh oh
Wee-ell-Now!

Relax don't do it
When you want to go to it
Relax don't do it
When you want to come
Relax don't do it
When you want to come
When you want to come

Relax don't do it
When you want to to go to it
Relax don't do it
When you want to come
Relax don't do it
When you want to suck to it
Relax don't do it
When you want to come
Come-oh oh oh

But shoot it in the right direction
Make making it your intention-ooh yeah
Live those dreams
Scheme those schemes
Got to hit me
Hit me
Hit me with those laser beams

I'm coming
I'm coming-yeah

Relax don't do it
When you want to go to it
Relax don't do it
When you want to come

Relax don't do it
When you want to suck to it
Relax don't do it (love)
When you want to come
When you want to come
When you want to come
Come-huh

There're many ways Krsna uses to point to Himself and this is one of them. The dream awoke your curiosity about Krsna, that was its purpose. So try to learn more about Him.
Since you knew the verses, it could mean that you simply remembered them from your past lives. The singing brought about the appearance, that's the way of realizing Krsna thru the sound of His names. If it was Krsna or an actor impersonating Him isn't too important since theater and other arts were originally sacred, related to the spiritual reality of which they're reminding us. Only later they became secularized.
The material sound took over, a return to the material dimension which conditions us from the time immemorial.
Vaisnavas don't consider Krsna as a mere symbol or a pointer to the Source but the Source itself. From Him everything emanates and rests in Him. Just yesterday I came across this text about the VAmana avatAra:

Thank you so much for your analysis. I especially appreciated your point about Krsna appearing because of the singing of his names. That blew my mind to be honest! It really resonated with me, the mantric (is 'mantric' a word?!) repetition giving rise to his image, his physical form. And the idea of invoking him through sound, yes it makes a lot of sense. I take your point also about the sacred function and origins of theatre. My feeling about his appearance (the way he ran away after I looked out of the window) was that he was playing a trick on me. His body seemed filled with a kind of humourousness, and maybe on some level he was playing at being himself, for the benefit of my self-realisation? And yes, he is believed to be the Source itself, you're absolutely right. All things emanate from him, including my unconscious, the dream that came from my unconscious bearing his image and the voices and the songs, as well as my consciousness and the capacity to recall the dream, to bring it into conscious awareness and consequently let its power work in my life. Just as it is doing right now as I type this, arousing my curiosity and leading me to thoughts of gratitude and, perhaps, devotion.

I subscribe to the dream analysis theory that everything/everyone we see and interact with in our dreams is a part of us. To this end, I quote the following stanza from a poem by Pablo Neruda, entitled 'Too Many Names':

'When I sleep every night,
what am I called or not called?
And when I wake, who am I
if I was not I while I slept?'

Krsna appearing thru singing of His names is a prominent tenet of bhakti yoga. Nama rupa, Krsna's sound form, is one of His many forms. There're also His 'material' forms called murti, or an image, worshiped in temples.

Lord's nama (name) and His mantra are close but technically somehow different. Chanting nama is the current yuga dharma, the 'religion of the age'.

I've heard from devotees of similar experiences of seeing Krsna running fast and disappearing in an awakened state, not in a dream.